Impact of Climatic Change on an Arid Watershed: Nahal Yael, Southern Israel

Abstract

The Nahal Yael basin is underlain chiefly by schist, amphibolite, and granite. Thin (generally <1 m thick), grussy colluvium which covered the lower portions of granitic hillslopes in the late Pleistocene has now been stripped completely, causing marked contrasts in outcrop morphologies, even where there is no contrast of fracture density or petrologic characteristics. Formerly mantled slopes are now smooth and crumbly, and lack desert varnish. Previously unmantled slopes are rough and craggy, and varnished but little weathered. Such stripping suggests a change from a semiarid to a drier and/or warmer climate. Slopes underlain by amphibolite responded similarly to the climatic change, but the amphibolite was more deeply weathered, and the colluvium was only partially stripped. The least stripping of colluvium occurred on schist hillslopes, partly because schist outcrops require more rain to generate runoff, and partly because angular blocks of schist require larger flows for transport, compared to other slope lithologies. The stream subsystem responded to the climatically induced changes in the discharge of water and sediment from the hillslopes. Increase in sediment yield caused valley alluviation in the early Holocene, and a decrease in sediment yield later in the Holocene caused entrenchment of the valley fill. More granite and amphibolite gravel-size particles are transported now than when the hillslopes were extensively mantled. Dense networks of trails are not common on Holocene geomorphic surfaces, but are present on remnants of Pleistocene surfaces.